In a bid to ensure women’s security on the roads of the city, Howrah Police offered Karate training to school and college girls. The project has been named ‘Tejaswini’ where till now 400 girls from 4 different schools and colleges have participated.
As per the report published by the national crime record bureau in the last three years, Kolkata has been announced as the safest city in the country. But Howrah, an adjacent district to Kolkata, has a women’s population of 45 percent and the rate of crime against women is about 25 percent.
Therefore, after the Kolkata police, this is the very first time Howrah Police also introduced ‘Tejaswini’ project and started giving karate training to girls students for their self defence at a crime spot. Along with the karate training, Howrah police also geared up women’s security to ensure more safety on roads.
Girls from Class 9 to above are eligible to attend this training program arranged by the police. The training is conducted by a highly professional karate trainer. Police sources claimed that a team of 15 trainers led by renowned black belt champion Mousumi Paul had been formed to train those girls’ students. It’s a two-week-long training session and 400 girls can participate together in one batch.
The police commissioner of Howrah, Praveen Kumar Tripathi, said, “When I took charge as a Commissioner I felt women of this district needed to be more confident while coming out on road. This training will motivate all women and give them the self-confidence to protect themselves if anyone faces anything wrong on the road.”
Another higher official said, “Police reached the spot after being informed by anyone, but till then things happens. So, this training will help our girls to protect themselves immediately on the spot. This is an innovative step towards women empowerment.”
This training will be given for the whole year. After completing four batches, an inter-school competition between the trained Tejaswini girls will be conducted every year by the police administration in order to give more encouragement to the girls.
